Airline News and Commentary

The Post In Which I Combine 3 Rather Odd Airline Passenger Stories

– A man wearing an anti-TSA t-shirt is told that the pilot of his Delta flight does not want him on the plane and refuses to let him board. I was less fascinated with that part than the part where he mentions he was flying home from a funeral. When he packed for the trip, he was thinking to himself, “Hm, yes, I’ll need the dark suit for the funeral; a pair of dress shoes; my anti-TSA t-shirt; a plastic bag for my 3 ounce liquids…” Reading his story, while I think being removed from the flight because of the t-shirt is nutty, if anyone deserved it, it’s this guy.

– A family of 4 flying on Buddy Passes with JetBlue gets stuck in Salt Lake City when the flights are full (Buddy Passes are what your friends who work for an airline give you so you can fly for free or a discount). As you might imagine, Buddy Passes are usable on a space available basis. After a few days went by and the guy couldn’t get a seat, he did what you or I would do — he started calling local TV news shows and telling them about his “plight.” The father of the family has turned down offers to buy them tickets home or give them hotel rooms – they have been sleeping in the airport and complaining about it. Best line? “The family has also been unable to shower since Wednesday.” Not so much “unable” as they’ve chosen to sleep in the airport.

– A woman flying PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) from Lahore (Pakistan) to Paris had a rude awakening when she discovered that the plane had landed in Paris, boarded a whole new group of people, then took off again for Lahore all while she was sleeping. Yes, she slept through the entire thing. Best part: she didn’t tell the cabin crew on the return flight what had happened.

1 Comments.

The “buddy pass” story is classic. It’s kind of like a guy agreeing to be dropped off on an uninhabited island, being told there was no certainty when he’d be picked up, and than have the guy complain to the world a few days later about being stranded.

I do wonder if stories like this will cause the airlines to restrict buddy passes — and if the employee who gave this family the passes will get in trouble for not better explaining “the rules.” It’s kind of like no good deed going unpublished. Jetblue basically got bad publicity because it gave away something to an idiot.